Pretreatment geriatric assessments of elderly patients with glioma: Development and implications

Abstract

Glioma is the most frequent primary brain tumor affecting adults, and the most lethal type is glioblastoma (GBM); currently, the available therapies only provide palliation. The treatments for low-grade glioma (LGG) include neurosurgical resection, watchful waiting, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, while the therapeutic strategies for high-grade glioma (HGG), particularly in elderly patients, have evolved to include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted monotherapy based on the characteristics of the investigated patients. Proper assessments aiming to predict and achieve the most satisfying prognosis among patients prior to surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy help summarize the pretreatment characteristics of patients, providing doctors comprehensive information to consider while determining whether the patients could benefit from ongoing treatments and deciding the proper treatment strategy for subsequent phases. This article aims to rigorously review the most recent evidence and discuss current mainstream assessments before the initiation of proper treatments for glioma, thus highlighting the potential necessity of pretreatment assessments.